quinn’s twelfth month ~ put a lid on it and quinn turns one

By marybethrew, on February 23rd, 2008

1/24 We went to the lab today. Quinn is still not feeling good, but he had a mellow day, just kind of hung out on mommy (this is the day he had his picture taken napping in the sling on my back while i did lab work).

1/25 Quinn woke up at 4am and threw up. Again at 8am and 1pm. We went to a naturopath doctor in the afternoon. Quinn has mild ear infection and upper respiratory virus. He now has herbs and ear oil drops to take, and we are doing wet sock treatment (wet cotton socks, dry wool socks on top, put on before bed) to draw out his fever and help him drain the yuckiness.

1/26 very rough day but Quinn napped a lot which was good. Fever, no more puking after 4am, but kind of low energy and only a handful of wet diapers (dehydrated). Nursing like crazy, and taking herbs and water in sippy cup. Had him lay his ear on a hot water bottle when he napped. In spite of all this, quinn managed to invent the game of basketball when he was helping me unload a laundry basket (of clothes he had puked on, and a tennis ball he had also puked on). He spent several minutes putting the tennis ball in the basket and taking it back out again. I love watching him invent games for himself to play!

1/27 puked one more time in afternoon but overall good day, better spirits in general. Played normally, fever down, more wet diapers. Unfortunately now dad is puking… Another invented game was dropping cylindrical blocks through the empty paper towel roll (yes, it was empty because of cleaning up puke- quinn’s AND dad’s; quinn helped me clean up dad’s by unrolling the paper towels and ripping them off for me. Hehehe.)

1/28 dada stayed home from work today. We have some snow on the ground, and we’re all cooped up being sick (except me- i’m just taking care of the sick ones.) quinn is a little more himself, with more normal playing and more wet diapers. He seems to be done throwing up, and so is dada. Yay!

1/29 quinn and i finally went out for a walk today. He seemed to really enjoy leaning his head back and looking up at the trees, kind of in a zone, and feeling the breeze, and then he took a cat nap toward the end of the walk. We didn’t go to the lab today, and I’m not sure if we will go later in the week. It was sunny, briefly, and i’m very glad we took advantage of it since now we have that wonderful weather known as “mixed precipitation” going on. Both my men are napping to the hum of our new humidifier. He is still quite congested and his fever went back up a little bit again (99.8). I got very little sleep again last night, but for some reason can’t nap at the moment. I’ll probably feel like napping around the time he wakes up from his nap, as usual.

1/31 quinn slept through the night! Yippee!!! We went to the lab today and tried to catch up a little on what we didn’t do on tuesday…

2/3 this is the anniversary of quinn’s due date! At this time last year, we didn’t even know he was Quinn yet. We’ve just been having a slow weekend of errands and naps and such. It’s so nice that his sleep is back to normal. He is eating more than ever, i think he is trying to make up for the time while he was sick. He is spunky again… he has been playing with his train set, and blocks, and other things. Making up new games, as ever. Lately he loves pulling all the rolls of toilet paper off the bathroom shelf, then peeling pieces off of one roll and stuffing them into the end of the tube. He had a great time putting his cylindrical blocks into the end of an empty paper towel roll as well. These were very expensive toys, of course.

2/4-2/10

this week flew by for some reason! Quinn’s latest passion is putting caps and lids onto containers. He is getting very good with baby food jars, odwalla juice bottles, and plastic tupperware tubs. Last night (2/9) he was crawling around and located a tupperware tub, and must have remembered where he left the lid, because he hurried over to retrieve the lid so he could put it on…

he ate his first salmon last night as well, cooked by dad (it was yummy!) and he really took his time investigating it before he would actually swallow any. He also had broccoli and potatoes, and so did we. He is more and more often eating what the big people eat for meals.

He has had a minor sniffle this week, but it does not seem to be phasing him at all. Nothing like that last one… If anything he is nursing a little extra, but sleeping fine with just the humidifier running at night to help him breathe a little more easily.

Yesterday morning he fell off the bed while sleeping- we think he crawled in his sleep. So we are going to have to rearrange something there. He reacted great- he cried for about 30 seconds, nursed, and then was awake and smiling for the next 2 hours.

We were at the lab 3 times this week, on Friday just for a few hours to finish an experiment that could not wait over the weekend. He is riding on my back more and more in the sling, and he seems to like it. Next week we’ll work three full days!

On friday quinn had his first ride in a shopping cart! One would think he would have done that by now, but i always put him in the sling. This time i forgot to bring the sling, and so we took a cart for a test drive. He loved it! He seemed to really like this new perspective on the world. I liked being able to write a check much more easily. However, as I suspected, it made it very easy for the checkout person to reach right out and touch him, and that is why I think I have been so resistant to doing it up until now. But I still think it was overall a pleasant experience. He is getting to be such a big boy!

2/11 we had a lab day today but it was pretty rough. Maybe it’s just that it’s our first monday. I think maybe quinn needed to nap so badly that he couldn’t fall asleep, and then we kept having those miss the bus, need to nurse at bus stop, crying in public, not on the same page kind of moments. But it was partly sunny. And the evening was good, after a good nap Quinn played with his “toys” which right now are mostly containers with lids he can put on and take off (and put things inside). Yogurt container this evening was a big hit. He is having a great time eating burritos for dinner lately.

2/12 this morning quinn was entertaining himself for quite a while putting a harmonica through an empty toilet paper tube…

2/13 busy busy lab day- we worked 7.5 hours!

2/14 we spent the day with susan and co today. Quinn is very content and loves playing at their house, he tends to forget to nurse and take naps. He made up for the nursing in the evening (clustered 4 feedings into 3 hours) and went to bed just after 8.

2/15 quinn started using his spoon to try to feed himself dinner tonight. He also fed me, both with the spoon and his hand (handful of beans and quinoa is yummy in mommy’s tummy!) then he lost interest in eating and crawled over to the table and discovered that he can make the chair move all by himself- i think he will be zooming it around the room in no time.

2/16-17 beautiful weather this weekend!

2/18 today was sadly quinn’s last day at the lab. He isn’t allowed to go anymore, and it is going to be very difficult to figure out what the best solution is. Although we have been thinking about this for a while, we had no set plan of action and now it has ended rather suddenly.

2/19 quinn loves the animal babies books from the library, and when i pointed to the little wolf’s nose tonight he turned around and looked at me and put his finger on my nose.

2/20 mellow day. Quinn and i went to trader joe’s to get the last few missing birthday cake ingredients, and we started to clean the bathroom (he helped unpack the toilet paper from the plastic wrapper). Lunar eclipse this evening, which we were miraculously able to see- hardly a cloud in the sky.

2/21 q at susan’s- first day away for 4 hours while mom worked. 🙁 a very hard day for all. Quinn was a champ, though. He is the bravest, most adaptable little guy. He played well and even nursed (he has a backup milk mommy, yay mama susan!) and took a short nap. By the time i came and picked him up he was ready to see me, but he was all love- not angry or upset with me. Later that night he cried for a spell, and it seemed like maybe a delayed reaction. (he had no other obvious pressing needs.)

2/22 omsi with susan and friends.

2/23 birthday!!!

Quinn woke up his usual happy self. we went to the kitchen and he ate some banana for breakfast while mom made her breakfast. Then we took a walk while dad slept in a little bit. Quinn had a few presents from Grammy and Grampy to open, and he stretched that out through part of the morning and early afternoon. He got a great book (the three snow bears), an argyle sock monkey named otto, and a magnetic train set.

His party was scheduled for 2:00 and everyone arrived just before 3, all at once! Quinn seemed to take it all in stride, which was good because sometimes he has been known to be upset by people coming to the house. He knows them all though… Steve and Dena and Bodhi, Susan and Gryphon and Ronan, and Sukita. We had lots of food ready, a yummy nutritious yogurt-oatmeal cake with strawberries and whipped cream, sushi, chips and guacamole, juice, soda, etc. quinn received some great new toys, including his first toolbox and his first puzzle, an abacus, and probably some other things i am forgetting.

He ate and ate and ate for his party, played with the other kids, snuggled with the adults, and then ate his cake with true gusto. He just sat on the floor and stuffed his face with it. He seemed like he really enjoyed it (he was up a tiny bit late that night, yelling with glee at 10pm due to orange juice/maple sugar in the cake! But there does seem to be something to the idea of those more natural sugars not inducing the IMMEDIATE sugar high spike and subsequent crash- it stretches out longer…)

That evening I was playing on the floor with him, and he stood up holding onto me, then let go, standing without support and just my arms nearby in case he wobbled- his balance is great! He is wonderful.

He is communicating a lot more clearly in the last few days. He has decided on a gesture for nursing where he pats my chest (basically where a necklace would be if i wore one) and it has been very consistent. He also has been really excited lately about things he sees when we go for walks- he points to birds and says “buh!” or dogs and says “dah!” or cats and says “tuh”. His newest animal to point at is squirrels- they sound a lot like cats, with a little “s” thrown in for fun.